Tyumen region governor Alexander Moor introduced a regional-level state of emergency in Tyumen and the Tyumen municipal district on July 28, citing heavy rains and a record summer flood on the Tura River. Water levels reached 877 centimeters that morning and continued to rise, Moor said.
Since mid-July, city residents have been mass-reporting poor tap water quality. Dozens of posts on social media and local community pages describe a sharp smell of feces, hydrogen sulfide, and rotten fish. Many say the water is unusable not only for drinking but also for washing and bathing — after showering, their skin itches and breaks out in a rash.
“I choke every night, I close the windows,” Tyumen resident Svetlana told the outlet Siberia.Realities. “One night I couldn’t stand the stench, I started choking, I didn’t have enough oxygen.”
Fish in the Tura have been dying since mid-June. The banks of the river and Andreyevskoye Lake are littered with dead fish — oxygen levels in the water have dropped more than tenfold. Experts link the die-off to a combination of flooding, heat, and large amounts of organic matter washed from flooded areas. As that matter decomposes, oxygen is consumed, and fish suffocate.
Russia’s consumer safety watchdog Rospotrebnadzor switched to daily monitoring of river and drinking water quality on July 16. A sample taken from an apartment on Kharkovskaya Street on July 21 exceeded limits for three indicators — smell, iron content, and manganese. The agency acknowledged “non-compliance of drinking water with organoleptic indicators” but said it met safety standards. On July 23, Rospotrebnadzor recommended residents temporarily use bottled water for drinking.
The local water utility said it increased the dose of powdered activated carbon 15-fold, adjusted reagent levels, and stepped up laboratory testing. Some residents say these measures triggered allergic reactions — itching and rashes all over their bodies. One woman interviewed by Siberia.Realities said her doctor ordered tests for hepatitis A. Another complained that no clean water deliveries had been organized and that stores had run out of bottled water.
Ecologist Rostislav Valeev told tmn.aif.ru that geosmin — a compound with a strong earthy, swampy odor noticeable even in tiny concentrations — may have built up in the water. Boiling does not remove it, so during the crisis it is safer to drink bottled water, he said.
Residents in the emergency zone are eligible for a one-time payment of 15,675 rubles. Those who partially lost property can receive 78,000 rubles, and those who lost everything can get 156,000 rubles, the governor said.